On first day back, Reid blasts GOP immigration stance

Harry Reid praised Mitch McConnell, gave a nod to a nice phone call he’d received from another Republican senator and then got down to business: Ripping apart the Republicans’ plan to take on President Barack Obama’s immigration policy.

In his first appearance on the Senate floor since seriously injuring himself during a New Year’s Day workout, the Senate minority leader (D-Nev.) gave a trademark, pugnacious four-and-a-half minute performance on the Senate floor Tuesday.

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The bandaged Democrat was “sorry to say” how unimpressed with how long it took Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) to pass a bill approving the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, praised the “constructive” Democratic minority he now leads and then took aim at this week’s business: A bill that funds the Homeland Security Department but blocks Obama’s actions to shield millions of undocumented immigrants.

“Why should we be dealing with issues that have nothing to do with Homeland Security? Nothing to do with Homeland Security?” Reid said. “If my Republican colleagues have some problems with something the president has done on immigration, for example, hit it head on. Don’t hide it in Homeland Security.”

Working from home for several weeks since an exercise band snapped during his workout and catapulted him into cabinets, Reid already has his caucus set to block the DHS/immigration bill on Tuesday over opposition to the immigration language inserted by conservatives. As he blasted the proposal passed by the House and now under consideration in the Senate, Reid appeared to be reciting his remarks mostly from memory due to blindness in his right eye stemming from the injury

And the message was a familiar one for Reid: There will be no negotiating with Republicans.

“We should pass a Homeland Security bill with no strings attached to it. That’s where we’re going to wind up,” Reid said. “We need to get that done and send it to the president in a clean fashion.”

Ahead of Reid’s first speech as minority leader in more than eight years, McConnell wished Reid “well in his recovery, which looks as if it’s coming along nicely.” But old habits proved hard to break: McConnell called Reid the “majority leader,” a title that was synonymous with Reid’s name for eight years.